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There is an old illustration of the devil and one of his minions watching a man on his life journey. They watched as the man picked something up on the journey. The demon asked the devil, “What did the man pick up?” The devil replied, “A piece of truth.” The demon concerned asked, “Doesn’t that bother you?” “No,” replied the devil, “I’m not worried because it is man’s nature to make religion out of truth.”

The point of the illustration is that religion cannot save anyone, only truth. Religion has gotten in the way of truth for centuries. Religion bogs us down to the law, to the dos and don'ts and there is no hope or love in these things. This was a major battle in the early church because so many came out of a very ritualistic, legalistic religion. A religion that taught that only a certain people group would be allowed to be received by God.

This all changed with the coming of Christ who came to fulfill the completed plan, the true covenant between God and all man. This was not easy to comprehend, even for the Lord’s closest disciples. Many still believed that the Messiah was for the Jews only, until a man named Saul was called to be an Apostle to the Gentiles. Many of the Jewish Christians struggled with this call, even Peter, the most outspoken follower of Christ struggled with this revelation. That is until Peter is called to witness to a Gentile family himself.

In Acts 10 we see a familiar text where Peter is on a rooftop praying and meditating. In this state, Peter received a vision from the Lord. In this vision, a tablecloth full of unclean animals appeared and the Lord told Peter to kill and eat. Peter was horrified because these animals were not clean according to the Jewish religion. Jesus made this proclamation, “What God had made clean, you must not call common, or unclean.” Later, while Peter is trying to figure out the meaning of this vision, visitors come looking for him. They come from a man by the name of Cornelius. Cornelius is a Roman centurion, but he believed in God, but believing in God is not enough for salvation so an angel appears to him and tells him to send for Peter.

Peter goes with the men and speaks to Cornelius and the whole family places their trust in Jesus. You would think that would bring great celebration to all these early Christians, but in chapter 11 we see where the apostles and brothers began to argue with Peter because he met and even ate with the uncircumcised. Now later these leaders understood what was going on and marveled that God now allowed the Gentiles to repent and know Christ.

What I want us to see in this is that if we are not careful, we can allow religion to get in the way of what God wants to do in our lives, the lives of others, and even in the life of the church. In many church circles we may call these things sacred cows. Let’s make sure we keep our hearts and eyes open to what the Lord Jesus is doing and wanting to do and not what religion has taught us to do.